The US-led war on terror is only fuelling more violence by focusing on military solutions

The quote comes from a publication sponsored by the Oxford Research Group, “Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World”. Now clearly, and undoubtedly because the likes of George Monbiot think it’s an important publication, this tome is just more slime dripping from the leaky auspices of another leftist collective because it criticises the U.S., it’s administration and current foreign policies.
From Bannerman’s perspective though, such trains of thought are the only possible avenue for those who believe that might makes right and everyone ought to be backing the concerted efforts of the Bush administration to bomb religiously different societies back to the stone age. No matter if ORG is or is not a leftist collective, or whether it’s a rabid right-wing outlet for all manner of impotence in matters political, the message being advertised by this report is vastly more important than any so-called ‘War on Terror’tm. In fact, it supports what Basil Fawlty would classify as the bleeding obvious. Iraq is the classic example. History repeating itself with respect to the failure of the U.S. in Vietnam. Ideological indoctrination at the point of a tank barrel is a fools errand.
And still, the supporters of propagating fear and loathing of those different to them, rail on. All the while ignoring that in order to defeat one’s enemy, one first must understand them. Sun Tzu wrote:

“There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.”

and most tellingly:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. “

Neither the U.S. administration nor any of it’s so-called coalition allies understand anymore about their ideological opponents today than they did ten years ago.